Updated
Microsoft leaked the golden keys that unlock Windows-powered tablets, phones and other devices sealed by Secure Boot – and is now scrambling to undo the blunder.
These skeleton keys can be used to install non-Redmond operating systems on locked-down computers. In other words, on devices that do not allow you to disable Secure …

Patch Tuesday
Microsoft has fixed 38 CVE-listed security vulnerabilities in Edge, Internet Explorer, and Office, as well as high-profile flaws that have allowed researchers to circumvent Windows boot protections.
None of the programming blunders were publicly disclosed or actively exploited in the wild prior to today's patch release.
The …

Microsoft has quietly killed a vulnerability that can be exploited to unlock ARM-powered Windows RT tablets and boot non-Redmond-approved operating systems.
The Register has learned that one of the security holes addressed this week in the July edition of Microsoft's Patch Tuesday closes a backdoor left in Windows RT by its …

Special Report
We stroll down Memory Lane and ask: was this The Ultimate Curse of Fry?
Spring cleaning the other day, my wife found a Windows wristband. It was in a box where ten year old 4MB MMC cards went to die, along with paperclips, odd screws and a lot of dust. Keep or chuck? Chuck, I said, before looking closer, and realising that it …

Microsoft has announced a new Universal Windows Platform Skype app for Windows 10, alongside the three existing Skype apps – one for video, one for messaging and the long-standing desktop app.
A preview of the new Skype UWP app
A preview of the new Skype UWP app
The Skype story on Microsoft's reinvented Windows platform is …

Windows 10 updates have begun rolling out to eligible Windows Phone 8.1 devices. Microsoft has promised not to be as aggressive as it has been with pushing Windows 10 onto desktops – a promise that’s surely not hard to keep.
It’s made good progress fixing the bugs, cranking up the performance, and making the UX transition …

Microsoft has patched 41 CVE-listed security vulnerabilities in its software this month.
The second Patch Tuesday monthly update of the year brings with it fixes for security flaws in both Internet Explorer and Edge that could allow remote-code-execution attacks simply by visiting a webpage.
Also fixed are remote-code- …

Microsoft is announcing new Windows 10 devices at an event in New York today. This is crunch time for the “One Windows” strategy, the idea that presenting developers with something like a single platform across many device types will stimulate a strong ecosystem of applications.
The company is expected to announce a range of …

Microsoft has finally revoked D-Link's leaked code-signing key, which gave malware the red carpet treatment on millions of Windows PCs.
Last week, it emerged that, for six months between February and September, D-Link exposed its private code-signing key to the world in a firmware download. Anyone who stumbled upon this key …

Microsoft has rolled out Build 10547 of Windows 10 to its "Insider" public preview testers, offering a fix to the Start menu bug that saw some shortcuts missing.
Windows Insider builds are not intended for production use, but represent the first phase in deploying updates across the various editions of Windows 10.
The most …

Microsoft has delivered a minor update to Windows RT, the ARM-based version of Windows 8 which runs on Surface 1 and 2 and on tablets from Lenovo, Nokia and others.
Windows RT is a locked-down version of Windows which includes the Windows desktop and Microsoft Office, but allows only Store apps to be installed.
The OS failed …

Microsoft has published a technical guide to its new Device Guard features in Windows 10 – including how to configure the anti-malware technology, and what hardware you'll need to use it.
We first learned of Device Guard in April at the RSA 2015 conference in San Francisco, and then a month later a little more info was teased …

Analysis
Windows Phone fanbois are turning on each other in an online orgy of recrimination. So says Daniel Rubino of unabashed fan site Windows Central – formerly Windows Phone Central.
Rubino made the observation in a candid post entitled: “The Windows Phone community is imploding”.
“The tone today from many is dire,” he laments. “ …

Mailbag
“Clearly the first year of ‘free’ is really beta testing – what should a sensible IT manager do?” asks one Reg reader Down Under. I’ve heard this from a few of you and collected your thoughts.
You’ve no doubt already read Tim Anderson’s review and Trevor Pott's sysadmin’s view. There are plenty of other concerns and questions …

Analysis
Less than two years into Satya Nadella's tenure as CEO of Microsoft, he's already had to report a lossmaking quarter. It's only the second time that's happened in the software giant's three decades as a public company, and the $8.44bn write-off Redmond posted earlier this week is the largest in its history.
Don't blame Nadella …

Microsoft is urging everyone to install an emergency security update for all supported versions of Windows to fix a remote-code execution vulnerability.
Details of the vulnerability were found and reported to Microsoft by security researchers poring over internal memos leaked online from spyware-maker Hacking Team. This …

Fear not, you unlucky owners of Windows RT tablets: Microsoft hasn't abandoned you yet. Not entirely, anyway.
According to Microsoft spokesman Gabe Aul, Windows RT, the feature-limited version of Windows 8 for ARM-powered fondleslabs, will in fact be getting another significant update soon.
That's the good news. The bad news …

Microsoft has released fixes for 59 CVE-listed vulnerabilities in its software – including a patch for the elevation-of-privilege flaw in Windows exploited by spyware maker Hacking Team.
There's a patch (MS15-065) for a remote-code execution bug in Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 7 and 8.1 that also emerged from the Hacking …

Microsoft's new Surface 3 tablet should be the perfect hardware for Windows 10, set to be released on 29 July. We put it to the test.
Microsoft's Surface experiment is significant on several levels. When the initial Surface device (running Windows on ARM, also known as Windows RT) was released in October 2012, it was the first …

Microsoft looks to have decided that the “modern” apps it gave the world with Windows 8 were a confusing mess, at least in the case of Skype, and will replace it with normal, boring, desktop Skype.
“With the upcoming release of Windows 10 for PCs, it makes sense to use the Skype application optimized for mouse and keyboards …

Microsoft's Get Windows 10 app has started appearing on Windows 7 and 8 boxes, with a one-click option to upgrade free to the new OS from July 29.
The company is keen to persuade users to upgrade, particularly following the lacklustre response to Windows 8. At Microsoft’s Build conference, Windows boss Terry Myerson predicted …

Pic + vid
Microsoft's brief flirtation with ARM-powered Windows RT tablets looks to be over: the Redmond giant has unveiled its latest fondleslab, the Surface 3, which is a dinky Atom-powered slate running a full version of Windows on Intel hardware.
Up until this latest tablet, Surfaces have sported ARM-compatible processors, and …

Diagasm
You can forget about Universal Apps, we're not supposed to use that term from now on. When Windows 10 arrives, what Microsoft has so far been calling Universal Apps will be known as "Windows apps."
That bombshell comes from Microsoft distinguished engineer Don Box, who spoke about the past and present of Windows at the WinHEC …

Another month, another Patch Tuesday, but this release has a special sting in the tail: a flaw in the fundamental design of Windows that's taken a year to correct, and is unfixable on Server 2003.
The critical blunder allows miscreants to completely take over a domain-configured Windows system if it is connected to a malicious …

One year ago, on February 4, 2013, Microsoft's board of directors appointed Satya Nadella the third chief executive in the company's history. So what do we have to show for it, so far?
Nadella's predecessor, Steve Ballmer, wasted no time in taking his hands off the wheel in Redmond, even going as far as to resign his seat on …

Microsoft has quietly pulled the plug on the last device to ship running Windows RT, casting doubt on the future of Redmond's ARM fondleslab OS.
The software giant confirmed on Wednesday to The Register that it has stopped manufacturing the Nokia Lumia 2520, a 10.1-inch Windows RT tablet with a quad-core ARM processor, an HD …

Interview
Today Microsoft and the Raspberry Pi Foundation announced that Windows 10 will run on the new Raspberry Pi 2. But why? The Register spoke to Pi founder and CEO Eben Upton.
“We’ve had people queuing up and saying they want Windows, the whole time,” says Upton. “I think there’s a sense that 'you’re a real PC' if you run Windows …

Microsoft is working on a free version of Windows 10 that runs on Brit-tech hit Raspberry Pi in order to penetrate the Internet of Things (IoT).
Microsoft and the Raspberry Pi Foundation have been collaborating for six months on the joint project, which emerged early on Monday.
Windows 10 will run on the latest version of the …

Comment
The Windows 10 traditional desktop is a no-go zone for new tablets smaller than 8-inches across, according to Microsoft exec Joe Belfiore.
This week he tweeted that only slabs at least 8in in size can run the Windows 10 operating system in desktop mode and use normal 32-bit Windows applications. Smaller slates and smartphones …

Analysis
Microsoft has revealed more of its plans for Windows 10, with full release expected towards the end of 2015. The press event focused on eye-catching features like HoloLens, a virtual reality and augmented reality headset, but what really counts is this: will Windows 10 attract developers back to the Windows platform?
Windows …

With all the hoopla coming out of Microsoft's Windows 10 event in Redmond on Wednesday, there was surprisingly little talk of Windows RT, the feature-limited version of Windows 8.x for ARM-based tablets – and perhaps with good reason.
In a Q&A with press following Wednesday's keynote, Redmond OS bosses Terry Myerson and Joe …

Analysis
Microsoft offered a teaser of its work across its three main platforms yesterday, enough to give us an insight into how well Operation Relevance is going. It’s very much a work in progress. Here are the five key points on Windows 10 and the accompanying strategy.
1. 'Please come back to Windows 10 – for free'
The challenge is …

Review
With little fanfare, the Windows tablet market is changing. Step into your local supermarket, and you may see Windows tablets on show priced below equivalent Android devices.
A sensible purchase? Here is a look at a fine example, a Linx 8 purchased from Sainsbury’s for £89.99 (even better deals are available online). It is one …

CES 2015
Seagate's arriving at CES 2015 with all guns blazing, with a new "living" logo and personal cloud, wireless, and anorexic hard drives to store the data of tomorrow.
Thin, portable, $99...
The first of the new products is a 7mm thick, 500GB portable external drive called the Seagate Seven - as in 7mm.
It has a bare drive look …

Microsoft's just released its November rollup of product fixes to address issues that go back to April 2014.
The new dump includes patches galore for Windows RT 8.1, Windows 8.1, and Windows Server 2012 R2.
The latter gets some handy fixes, such as one that includes “performance and reliability improvements in the cluster, …

Nokia is back in consumer electronics with an iPad rival, the new N1 tablet, just six months after Microsoft snorked up its phone division. The Finnish firm has said that many more devices will follow.
Youtube Video
The Atom-powered, Android-based, mini-sized N1 enters a crowded marketplace with a price tag of just $250. It's …

Some members of Microsoft's Windows Insider program received yet another build of the Windows 10 Technical Preview this week, one that foreshadows more changes to the OS that should come as welcome news to those who cheered the return of the Start Menu.
The release, marked as Build 9879, is only available to those who have …

Microsoft looks to have created a version of Windows Server that runs on ARM processors.
Loquacious sources close to Microsoft confirmed a "test version" of Windows Server is up and running, but the report from newswire Bloomberg was scant on other details.
That's not a stunning feat: having developed Windows RT – a version …

Yahoo! has finally developed a Flickr app for Apple's iPad – but the move has upset Microsoft Windows' fans who have accused the Purple Palace of having "selective hearing" about its userbase.
The Marissa Mayer-run company, which bought photo-sharing site Flickr in 2005, said on Friday that it had cooked up an app for …

October is stacking up to be a bumper Patch Tuesday update with nine bulletins lined up for delivery — three rated critical.
Cloud security firm Qualys estimates two of the lesser "important" bulletins are just as bad however, as they would also allow malicious code injection onto vulnerable systems.
Top of the critical list …

Analysis
Microsoft is courting corporate types with the newest version of its operating system, Windows 10.
START MENU - Windows 10 preview
The new Start menu mixes elements similar Windows 7
with live tiles from Windows 8.
Redmond previewed an early build of the next Windows at a press event in San Francisco. The update, which …

True to form, Microsoft has released its latest batch of monthly security fixes, although as expected, September's Patch Tuesday update is a relatively light one.
As Redmond warned us, the only critical patches this time around are included in a big roll-up of fixes for Internet Explorer, which addresses one publicly disclosed …

Analysis
As has been increasingly the case with smartphones, the tablet market is shifting away from an Apple/Samsung head-to-head, and becoming a free-for-all.
While the two major suppliers still lead the sector, their sales declined in the second quarter, even though overall shipments were up. Apple may look to address the challenge …

NVIDIA has taken the wraps off “Denver”, its long-rumoured 64-bit ARMv8 architecture compatible, system-on-a-chip (SoC), and claims it delivers performance equivalent to some CPUs found in PCs.
The company has blogged about the silicon, the successor to its current 32-bit Tegra K1 models.
Denver will come in two versions, …

Given the losses Microsoft has racked up with the Surface "design point", the firm could be forgiven for drawing a line under the project rather than sending the third generation product to Britain.
In a blog post, Microsoft this week confirmed the Pro 3 model will hit the streets in 25 countries including the UK on 28 August …

Analysis
"Everything points to a boom in the landfill business" – The Register, 2012
Are tablets the new netbooks – a flash in the pan? Or perhaps even the new picture frames - a one-season fad?
I don’t think so, but sales are flat, and the numbers look ominous for any global technology company hoping they’ll provide a long-term money …

Microsoft has released patches for 29 security vulnerabilities, while Adobe has released an update for Flash Player.
Redmond's latest Patch Tuesday batch is composed of six bulletins, two of which have been rated as critical updates. Three others have been rated important, and the sixth is considered a moderate risk.
The …

Microsoft has issued its usual warning to admins ahead of this month's Patch Tuesday – and servers are getting some serious fixes.
Redmond will be pinging out six parcels of patches; two critical batches, three important and one rated moderate – the latter covering the service bus for Windows Server. But Windows RT, Server …